Ryan Jacoby was sitting at home in Mentor (Oh.) last Wednesday night playing video games with his friends when the phone rang.
The former Ohio State lineman didn’t recognize the 412 area code, so he asked his friends if he should answer.
“They said, ‘Yeah, put it on speaker,’ so I did and Coach (Pat) Narduzzi was like, ‘Hello, Ryan? This is Pat Narduzzi, the head coach at Pitt.’”
That was Jacoby’s first call from the Panthers. Two days earlier, he had entered the transfer portal. Three days after the call, he committed to Pitt. And two days after that – one week after entering the portal, if you’re counting at home – Jacoby was on the road from Mentor to Pittsburgh to begin his second start in college.
A three-star offensive line prospect in the class of 2019, Jacoby committed to Ohio State over more than 20 scholarship offers, with Pitt among a list that also included Boston College, Duke, Iowa State, Kentucky, Michigan, Michigan State, Oregon, Purdue, Virginia and West Virginia. He redshirted as a freshman with the Buckeyes and didn’t see the field last season. This summer, Jacoby started considering his options and decided not to join the team for training camp.
“I just wasn’t happy anymore,” Jacoby told Panther-Lair.com while driving to Pitt on Monday. “So I talked to my parents and people I trust in life, and I asked why I would put myself through something where I wasn’t happy.”
Jacoby’s late entry into the transfer portal meant he would’t benefit from the NCAA’s new immediate eligibility ruling – July 1 was the cutoff for that – but it also meant that navigating the available options would be tricky.
By the second week of August, most teams have their rosters set for the season with little or no open scholarship spots. Pitt entered training camp with two openings; that opportunity combined with proximity made the Panthers a good fit. Plus, one of Jacoby’s high school teammates, Byron Floyd, is a long-snapper at Pitt, and that helped, too.
“Having a friendly face there, knowing he’s someone I can trust, that was big,” Jacoby said. “I know he won’t lie to me. He thinks I would like it there and I trust him. He said Coach (Dave) Borbely is a great dude and a really good coach, and he said Coach Narduzzi is the same thing: they’ll do anything for you and they’re really here for you to help you.”
Despite holding an offer from the Panthers coming out of high school, Jacoby didn’t have much interaction with the staff prior to last week. But after talking to Narduzzi on Wednesday, he got on the phone with Borbely for a conversation about what the Pitt offensive line coach is looking for.
“He said he’s looking for some depth and some help on the O-line,” Jacoby said. “He said he thinks I would be a good fit and he’s excited to work with me. I’m going to play guard and he said they’re graduating some guys so there’s going to be a competition there.
“He seems like a really genuine person and I’m excited to have him as my coach.”
Jacoby will arrive in Pittsburgh on Monday and go through the process of enrolling and joining the football program. The last week was a hectic one for him but now he’s ready to become part of his new team.
“It was a whirlwind, and it has just been flying by,” Jacoby said. “It’s like a whole recruiting process happening in one week. It was fun but I’m glad it’s over.”